ABOUT ITALIAN DESIGN

Discover the Italian design....

(1891-1981)

Corradino D'Ascanio studied engineering at the Regio Istituto Superiore di Ingegneria (later Turin
Polytechnic ) and obtained his degree as an industrial
engineer in 1914. The same year he joined Arma del Genio as
a volunteer.
In 1916 he started working in the technical office of the
building society Pomilio. With the company he travelled to
the United States where he worked for a year. When he came
back to Italy he realized many technical projects for a
company in Popoli some of which were patented.
In 1925 he founded a company with the Baron Pietro Trojani
with whom he realised an helicopter. He designed a
prototype D'AT3 for Ministero dell'Aeronautica, which won in October 1930 the world records of flight distance in straight line, of altitude and of flight duration.
In 1932 Corradino D'Ascanio joined the company Piaggio and
designed Vespa (so named for its aerodynamic and nimble
structure), his most popular creation. This was shown for
the first time at the "salone del ciclo e del motociclo" in
Milan in 1949, becoming the most popular worldwide scooter
for the following 50 years (16 millions pieces in 130
different models until 2005).